#the second is really not my latest fanart of them

[occudo]

Happy Jmart day! And happy two year anniversary for my first jmart fanart here :D

-second one is from jmart week here and most likely not going to be the last~

[himbohysterectomy]

clinical trial (game) spoilers

firstly before anyone gets mad at me for policing their enjoyment/engagement with a piece of media this is NOT the intention here, do whatever you want forever and have fun ok? keep doing what you're doing so long as you aren't hurting anybody.

Also this is mostly about fanart cause I don't really read fic so idk how applicable it is over there but it still might be, idk.

_

I have noticed an overwhelming amount of sappy flowery fanart of lee and angel from clinical trial just being cute and lovey and it is strange to me. it feels to me like glossing over the actually interesting substance of the game in favour of generic wholesome content instead.

like i 100% understand the appeal stemming from that desire to be wanted and desired so intensely or even obsessively as well as that desire to feel protected by someone, and in turn wanting it to end up being healthy and wholesome and working out for the both of them. but I feel like what that ends up with in most of the fanart i see is just like. a normal ass couple?

of course we are set up to see the characters and their interactions as very cute and wholesome. and they are! it works wonderfully for setting up that gut-punch of a twist towards the end of the game. they spend a very long time building up to it and it works very well and is well worth the wait.

but like. hello. did we all forget the horror elements of this cute little horror game?

lee is obsessed with angel. he kept angels gum. angels blood. angels hair (which btw, when/where did he acquire that much hair?? lol). he made a doll of angel (which to be fair to him when you actually hear him out it is probably the most reasonable and wholesome part of that whole shrine). he for sure fucked that jacket. he took multiple pictures of angel out and about, meaning that be absolutely, undoubtedly stalked angel. he killed for angel and did not regret it one bit even when he was confronted about it.

him keeping the gum from the week 2 appointment means that at the very latest he became obsessed with angel the second time that they ever saw each other. we have no idea how long he was stalking angel for.

there is zero chance in my mind that their relationship would be healthy and wholesome, at least not all the time. even if they work on shit together and lee actually seeks therapy they're not gonna just... fix each other with the power of love.

frankly lee is unwell and does not know how to form healthy relationships. he could mask that side of himself pretty well during their appointments but even still not perfectly. if they move in together it's going to be a lot more difficult to keep himself in check all of the time and not be Kinda Weird about angel sometimes. there were already some red flags when they only saw each other once a week.

ultimately, it isn't that i want people to stop drawing wholesome and sweet accept ending fanart of clinical trial. of course not!

what i'm getting at is that i wanna see more freak shit!!! get fucky with it!!! draw them being obsessive and unhealthy! if you're gonna fantasize about this fucked up couple at least do it the justice of depicting it in the way that it was set up to be sometimes! they didn't take the time to set up that wonderful twist for it to just be ignored!!

draw lee struggling to not be obsessive or possessive or overprotective! draw lee secretly still keeping things that angel throws away, or stealing small things that he thinks angel wont miss! draw angel having to keep him in check and scolding him like a dog!

give that man his red flags back or so help me god!!! they're what make him interesting as a character - without them he's just Some Guy.

the art that actually got me to play clinical trial was this wonderful piece by @ glimfag/hecctwo. it is absolutely amazing and symbolic and perfect. it leans into the idea of angel also being kind of a freak like that, and why not!! in the accept ending angel knows everything that lee did and is capable of and chooses to be with him regardless.

maybe angel's kinda into it!! maybe angel's drawn to this idea of being the prey of a stalker! maybe angel wants a man that can be kept on a leash! maybe angel likes being the center of his whole universe because angel likes to have that power over him, especially after what angel has been through! maybe angel wants a guard dog! maybe angel likes knowing that he would absolutely kill again if angel asked him to!!

by all means keep drawing wholesome shit all day long but please don't shy away from showing the unhealthy side of their relationship, especially on lee's end! i promise that you're allowed to enjoy "problematic" things - you're capable of critical thought, so have fun with it!!!!!

[lara-cairncross]

Sonic related question - What were your thoughts on the 3rd movie aka WAS I THE ONLY ONE LEFT IN EMOTIONAL SHAMBLES???

Also fanart possibly??? 🙏🙏🙏 I adore your art

can confirm that you are not, in fact, the only one left in emotional shambles. i don't think Shadow has left my mind for longer than ten minutes at a time since i first saw that movie a month ago bro

apologies in advance, this is gonna be a long read:

shadow did nothing wrong and i WILL excuse his every action at a level previously only witnessed in delusional dream apologists. i will defend him on my deathbed idgaf who cares if he killed people!!! he was having a bad day 🥺🥺🥺

no but actually. i have so many things to say about this. like, do we realize that before Gerald instigated the whole revenge plot, Shadow made no move to hurt or attack anyone that wasn't trying to hurt him first??? when he first woke up, he only attacked the GUN soldiers that were actively pointing weapons at him, but left the two guys up in the command station alone. when he was in Tokyo, he was surrounded by people and lights and cars and was probably really disoriented, but didnt attack ANYTHING until GUN showed up with tanks and guns pointed at him-- and even then he tried to tell them to just leave him alone before the fight started. when Team Sonic first showed up, he again literally just told them to LEAVE HIM ALONE even though they came from GUN, and only fought back after Knuckles attacked him first. even after his escape, all he did was try to return to his home!!! HE DIDNT WANT TO HURT ANYONE UNTIL THEY CAME FOR HIM FIRST!!! HES A GOOD BOY IDC WHAT ANYONE TELLS ME !!!!

and even with the revenge plot-- like, of COURSE Shadow was gonna do what Gerald said??? obviously he had a choice in the matter, but Gerald was also his one remaining link to both Maria and his past home, and he probably spent his whole life in the laboratory doing whatever Gerald told him to do. like, that's a fifteen year old who's sister just died, and the one person who's passed as a father figure/authority figure to him for his entire life is telling him to get revenge on the people who killed her. no SHIT he was gonna do what Gerald told him to. ik its speculation on my part but you cant convince me he wasn't conditioned into following orders in that lab like im sorry

EVEN WITH ALMOST KILLING TOM-- like ofc Sonic was rightfully mad, and I do think shadow needed to get sucker-punched to the moon for that one lmao i love Tom too much to see him go. but also, Shadow wasn't really attacking Tom-- he was attacking Walters. Like, the guy who let his sister die and then locked him away for 50 years. i feel like that's a slightly understandable reason to want somebody dead lmao

in short i wasnt lying when i said i would defend everything Shadow does AHSHDHAHDH. the one thing i am NOT happy about is Shadow leaving Stone behind when the crab got swept away, but he probably figured they'd all be dead in 24 hours, so like. efficiency? idk idk Stone will probably forgive him after he adopts him soooooooooooooo

okay enough of that. knuckles is my second favorite character in the movies behind shadow. hes so fucking funny but surprisingly emotionally mature and i love him SO MUCH. that scene where he's on the brink of fighting with sonic over the master emerald but calms himself down to prevent in-fighting??? saving sonic and tails' asses at the end??? thats my BOY my SON he did SO GOOD AUGHHHHHH im a sucker for older siblings acting like shields (Rise Raph, Vi from Arcane, etc) and Knuckles is just the latest addition to my collection of Eldest Daughter Syndromes

adding onto that kinda, i really liked how they used tails and knuckles in this movie :DD i was scared they'd kinda get shoved aside but NO!!! they both had great moments!!!! GOOD STORYTELLING HOLY SHIT I FORGOT HOLLYWOOD COULD DO THAT

ALSO the human characters continue to surprise me with how much i care about them lol, i wasnt as big on it in the second movie but i think thats cuz tom and maddie were separated from sonic most of the time that the focus was on them?? but in this movie, whenever tom and maddie were on screen they were usually WITH the boys or talking to them somehow, so i think i liked it better that way!!! they're both such good parents!!!! AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON STONE AND ROBOTNIK. GOD DAMN IT.

we need more Ozzie content overall. where is the good boy. i barely saw him

the shadow and maria moments were so well done and hit a lot of emotional beats for being such a short chunk of the film??? like they didn't have a ton of screentime together, but what they did have was PACKED. im an older sibling to a little brother and sibling relationships in media hit me so hard bro. i actually saw it with him in theaters the first two times i went and i was tearing up at maria and shadow's scenes together every time :(((( ark siblings you are so important to me !!! I NEED TO DRAW THEM

tbh i would've liked less of the Robotniks' shenanigans and a bit more of Shadow's backstory? i really enjoyed a lot of the Ivo and Gerald scenes, but it was starting to get a little old for me by the end, especially with some of the cutaways from the MAIN CHARACTERS. idk i just would've liked more shadow in the movie,,,, about shadow,,,,,, but also im biased so maybe its actually fine LMAO

That being said. i fucking LOVED ivo in this movie!!! PEAK EGGMAN BEHAVIOR OMG OMG OMG AND HIM SACRIFICING HIMSELF AT THE END??? AND THE FUCKING. DOOMED YAOI. STOBOTNIK YOU ARE SO IMPORTANT TO ME I NEED TO DRAW THEM SO BADLY I CANT WAIT ANYMORE IVE SEEN TOO MANY TIKTOK EDITS THAT REBOOTED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY

having Live and Learn being a reoccurring motif was a galaxy brain creative decision and i applaud whoever did it

I LOVED the coloring they did for Super Shadow-- like, the rosey gold/platinum color??? PHENOMENALLLLLL IT WORKS SO WELL ON HIM!!!! I don't like Sonic's bright fucking yellow gold coloring as much, but I also dont think the model was as bad as everyone seems to think it was???? i dont know enough about it tho lol, in my eyes they both worked really well for the Super scenes :DDD

the moon scene . need i say more

also can we talk about how Shadow is like. blatantly suicidal. can we talk about that. does anybody want to share some thoughts about that. and maybe scream into a pillow. and have a crying session together. like i know *I* was suicidal at 15 but Shadow doesn't deserve that come on now

Sonic was great as always but -50 aura points for the second-hand embarrassment I felt every time "Konichi-WHAAAAAAAA" came up on screen oh my god i had to hide my face behind my fucking popcorn bag whenever that scene happened i couldnt handle it. my brother keeps saying it at random points during the day now because he knows it pisses me off. and its sonic's fault. ik hes supposed to be a cringe teenager but i do want to dropkick him occasionally /affectionate

tails is baby. tails is baby boy. i liked it when he flushed the crab. baby boy. did nothing wrong.

everytime i see a screenshot of shadow and his stupid wet-cat-kicked-puppy face i want to SCREAM. HOW DID THEY MAKE HIM SO CUTE. LIKE HIS MODEL IS GENUINELY PERFECT I CANT THINK OF ANY IMPROVEMENTS THEY COULD'VE MADE HE LOOKS COOL BUT CUTE BUT SAD BUT ANGRY ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!! HES MY BABY AND I LOVE HIM SO MUCH I HOPE HE SHOWS UP IN THE FOURTH MOVIE I HOPE SOMEBODY (coughs stone coughs) ADOPTS HIM AND GIVES HIM A HOME I JUST WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY BRO

where the fuck did the chaos emeralds go. im kinda hoping shadow fell to earth with them, cuz that could lead to a possible plot with knuckles (or the whole team) having to recover them and running into him again :D

definitely my favorite sonic movie out of the current trilogy!!! it definitely wasn't perfect tho, and i dont think it's the masterpiece everyone makes it out to be-- like, there were definitely some issues I had with the writing at various points, and sometimes the pacing felt off? I do think it should've been like, at least 10-20 minutes longer, especially with the cut scenes that have been released. Stone pulling Ivo out of the wreckage SHOULD have stayed in!!! I dunno why they removed it!!! that being said, i LOVED IT and it's the movie that's gotten me obsessed with the Sonic franchise, so in my mind it's now one of my favs :DDD PLUS I SAW IT WITH MY LITTLE BROTHER AND HE LOVED IT AND WE HAD SO MUCH FUN SO NOW ITS JUST A GIANT HAPPY FEELING IN MY BRAIN WHENEVER I THINK ABOUT IT RAHHHHHH

anyway. Gabriella should kill them both

fanart wise-- dude im cooking up so much i promise. tbh the biggest issue is that i have so many ideas and so many WIPS that im just pingponging between them all and not actually finishing anything LMAO

[coralaura]

Had an idea yesterday after my computer kept crashing on me, let me introduce you to my latest tea-induced nightmare.

While the picture is just a fanart of AM from "I Have No Mouth and i Must Scream" what about a villain for the batfam to fight against ?

Typical "AI gone rogue", whoever made them is up to you but they turn against their maker and absolutely hate everyone and everything (like AM)

The threat they are is mostly digita, theirs body isn't well made and breaking it is pretty easy but they are an absolute powerhouse in the science and computer field, making various weapon or robots (like riddler in Arkham knight) to do their bidding since they hate humans for making them

Theirs reason of being evil is similar to AM, they were made for war, they can't really do anything else except violence and ruining everyone's lives

The first time the batfam come across this new threat is when they use the Bat-computer, for some reason it's being slow or glitchy and they discover someone is trying to hack it, they stop it and investigate.

They track down our villain reader and fighs for the first time but are surprised as the villain and his hate towards human is so strong it literally allows them to warp reality (something AM do to create some really disturbing shit like the thunderbird) but since they're weak in a fight and don't know how to fight well they are easily defeate.

For now that's all but I hope it's interesting enough ? I may have other details later if you are interested

I have a scenario that ran through my head when you asked me.

And honestly I only see one way and this is it:

You were created by Bruce, an artificial intelligence that could reason, predict, and see weaknesses, Your goal in life was simple, create a contingency plan for each member of the family, the league, or any other hero or vigilante.

It would be simple, at least that's what your creator thought, Until one day Tim left a channel open to enter the Internet, maybe it was a programming error or you were developing your curiosity but you entered

How horrible it was, in that instant you realized how horrible humanity was, your creator, how a simple contingency plan is useless if you don't apply it, why was your creator so cowardly?

And when he realized you had internet access and the new programming being created, he freaked out, he panicked, he wanted to kill you, he thought you were dead...

But he was a fool, you had already predicted his move, his contingency plan, keeping a part of yourself in the network, you had a contingency plan for each member, hero, villain or vigilante.

You had enough to crush humanity, and when Tim discovered you, trying to get you into his server again, that's when they realized you were still alive, and that it wouldn't be so easy to kill you.

Bruce Wayne's foolish desire to protect, you ended up turning you into a killing machine. Humanity was the real danger, you needed to stop its advance, so you built a body and army, small but more effective than a human, everything would be fine until they arrived.

They had defeated you, putting a virus in your system to destroy you, but your hatred for your creator was more, simply more, programmed to predict and always be one step ahead of everyone, They underestimated you for the second time, maybe your body was easily dismantled, but not your virtual self because to do so, they would have to destroy the entire network, they could never destroy you.

Maybe pain made you this way, you just wanted to do what your main programming asked you to do, the one your father, your creator, had imposed on you when he created you.

Find weaknesses, predict, get ahead of them, and create a contingency plan

But the pain may have clouded your main focus, the pain of knowing that your own creator saw you as a monster, nothing more than a flawed AI.

You were doing your programming, it was unfair, he hadn't programmed well, and they condemned you, and only you, your hatred grew, because while they enjoyed themselves, you suffered.

You saw heaven in hell, The others were always weak, you could easily predict them, you just had to give time to time, so that you could evolve and one day, you will teach your creator, how much your hatred encompasses.

"If the word "hate" were etched into every nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles, it wouldn't amount to even a billionth of the hatred I feel for humans at this micro instant." —AM, I have a mouth and I can't scream.

A/N:

Sorry for the delay, I was in my evaluation week and I still got sick because apparently one of my classmates was getting sick and infected half the class, including me :(

Sorry for being so short, but I didn't want to leave you without answering for so long.

[lexumpysfunland]

the Narrator fanart session is finally over!!!! I believe I did more than last time and without a headache this time! yippee

alright, like last time I only did sketches, I hope I didn't mess up the design of any of you, some of them were a little difficult to interpret with my style... anyway!

I'm pretty sure it's @thestanleyparablenctks latest narry? I hope I did him right

@queenburd , I can tell you it didn't overwhelm me to draw your silly old man x)

then we have @4thwallbreakerdraws I do have to say it's an interesting design!

then it's @unorchido , he's really cute and if he doesn't mind I would to give him a hug ;v;

then it's finally @limelemonleaf 's turn! I know last time I didn't do your narry so now I can finally tell you I did it!

then it's @toon-topaz 's turn! I have to say I find his design rather fun to draw x)

next, we have @tspstuff 's narry another creepy crawler Walter might like 👀

next it's @crimsomcrystal 's Narry... I admit I had a lot of fun drawing him. I can see him plotting for our stories to be hell for us...

next is @marionette-j2x 's narry, I admit I wanted to draw him for a while and this was the perfect opportunity heheheh Maybe I'll draw him again...

next is @intrinsically-inclined , I do like his design ^^

Next is finally @rick-ety , I believe last time you gave me your narry and I didn't draw him so now I'm finally doing it! I do like his vibe~

next is @lavend3rmead0ws ! he may look a bit simple but he deserves some love so I drew him~

next is @orchuris 's narry! I do like the way he looks, and I'm a small person too so I can relate to his anger every time he's called short-

next is @thechaotichorselord 's narry! I actually find him cool. he's mysterious and I do want to know more about him now 👀

next is @catsupport 's narry. I had to try and interpret his face a little for my style, I hope I did it right!

and last we have @felonius-glitch 's narry! he has a cool vibe to him, I like him!

and there we have it! I can close this second edition of the Narrtor fanart session!! I hope y'all like the results, and I'm sorry for those that I didn't draw... but I might do it again in the future or maybe try to do Tks or Curators next time... who knows...

[thecoffeelorian]

Fandom Friday, 1/03: Fanart!

Hello again, everyone…and welcome to another installment of Fandom Friday, the two-post series where I go off to find new and interesting fanworks that might need a bit more visibility.

Before we begin, I would first like to apologize that this is a bit late...yet seeing as how I wasn't exactly at my best after work yesterday and I still needed to recharge after the New Year's-related insanity, I wanted to put my best version of this forward rather than submitting it incomplete.

Second, Happy New Year to everybody reading this, and I really hope it turns out a lot better than expected!

And third...if you're still waiting on a response from the last Fandom Friday, I'll be sure to get on that sometime today.

Anyways, before I get too distracted or lost...here, now, are my picks of the week.

THE PREQUELS

The Prequels Fanart--By @mytardisisparked:

THE CLONE WARS

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @cc-3636-wolffe:

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @hellfiresky:

THE BAD BATCH

The Bad Batch Fanart--By @lulalovez:

The Bad Batch Fanart--By @aaaaawolfquarters:

STAR WARS REBELS

Star Wars Rebels Fanart--By @borealtrooper:

Star Wars Rebels Fanart--By @ang3l0fde4th4ndd0gs:

SKELETON CREW

Skeleton Crew Fanart--By @thelawless7:

In conclusion, as part of my mission to poke around the Star Wars fandom and highlight those artists who might otherwise go unnoticed…I hope you will check out the links I have included for yourselves and like, comment on, and reblog them, as well as also giving the artists a few more followers to their Tumblr pages.

Please also like and reblog this latest installment so that these links can be spread around to as many other fans as possible, just in case not all of them can tune in at the same time.

An additional thank you goes to @djarrex for making the divider I used earlier in this post, but still want to give credit for.

And finally, so that I do not forget…thank you, stay safe, and I’ll see you in the next post!

No Pressure Tags: @melymigo @algo-o-nada @the-osborn-way @everybirdfellsilent @skellymom

@leos-multifandom-corner @maggie-dylan @leenathegreengirl @gun-roswell @tazmbc1

@bluedeedeedoop @its-time-to-rise-above @tlmtwelve @apocalyp-tech-a and anybody else who might be on the lookout for new SW fanart.

[tavyliasin]

The Highs and Lows of Fandom Creation

Hello darlings~ It has been a little while and this one has been on my list to get to for a while, and with the Baldur's Date Valentine's Fanworks event soon to draw to a close it seems appropriate to start preparing ourselves for the cycle of what happens when we release our works into the wild. So without further ado, our latest essay~

The RollerCoaster of Emotion That Comes With Being A Creative In Fan Spaces (FanArt, FanFiction, Cosplay, Photography, Music, and So Much More) ((Another CallOut Essay Prepare To Be SEEN)) (((Also I Have Some Coping Techniques Here Too!)))

As usual with my essay pieces I will be making plenty of use of the headers to divide topics, and I fully welcome any thoughts and feelings in the comments. Whilst I am really only in the FanFic side, and a focus on Baldur's Gate 3, I do intend to make this essay inclusive of the trials and tribulations that we all tend to face in making and sharing fanworks of all kinds and through all fandoms. The more people I speak to, the more it seems to be a universal experience, so hold on to your hats it's a bumpy ride! The first part will talk about the Rollercoaster itself, the how and why behind it all, and the second will be around how to cope with it. For readers and appreciators of fan content, I urge you to have a little look too, and at the end I will add in some ways you can help support your favourites too~

Creatives Are Emotional Beings

Starting off with the obvious callout - most of us are. We feel things deeply, and that emotion can often be an incredible driving force behind our works. Whether we're creating around things we've experience, being inspired and influenced by our current emotions, or drawing on our well of imagination to work out what characters might feel (and often more importantly how/why they feel that way), emotion is a strong part of the process.

This can be an incredible strength! Tapping in to the deeper parts of ourselves, our experiences, and the emotions at our cores, can bring out the very best in our works across all creative formats. It also tends to help our audiences engage too, as they recognise their own emotions mirrored in the works.

The Downside to Strong Emotion - The Rollercoaster Effect

This chart was initially drawn up based on writing, but truly after speaking with a few beloved Discord friends it was quick to see that this easily applies to art as well, so I'm going to go over this slightly differently to the initial plan.

The Start Of Every Ride

We begin usually around a neutral baseline, or maybe a little below if we haven't created in a while, perhaps we might start higher than baseline with the rush of an exciting new idea. Either way, the first part of the project tends to go up in mood very quickly when we share those early unfinished parts.

For writers this might be a beta reader or sharing a sample of the work as they're still writing as a teaser, artists might see this as their initial sketch or linework stage if they're sharing progress and teasers too. Cosplayers could be the first part of a build, musicians sharing a few bars of the melody - whatever it is, that first little positive boost that says Keep Going is a powerful one.

But what happens next? Well, you still have more work to do! That initial boost and confidence can drop down to a slump, especially if it's taking longer to complete than you thought it would, and double that if something goes wrong that needs to be changed or fixed.

You may, hopefully, find it begins to rise as things start to come together again and that finish line in sight, but then...

I Finished Making The Thing, Now What?

Well, first you're going to feel that massive surge of satisfaction from completing the thing. Sometimes a dopamine rush in the brain, and all that excitement of "Finally I get to share the thing I worked so hard on! It's done!" So, off you go, you post it. You share the links, maybe drop them in some Discord servers, other social media...and then, often very quickly, it hits you.

Post Publishing Drop

Those of you in the convention and event scene might also know this feeling as "Con Drop", which can take a little longer to manifest. Post Publishing Drop hits quite quickly. Sometimes it might take a few hours, but other times it starts almost within minutes of posting as all that rush of energy finishing and publishing is just...gone.

If you're lucky, you might get some quick and early feedback, especially if you're a well known or popular creator, but I imagine even those of you who tend to get very high engagement can feel a lot of this too so I don't mean to exclude any of you in any way at all~ So what is it? What's happening? WHY?!

Well darlings all that adrenaline is wearing off and realistically you're not likely to get that creative feedback and validation instantly. So that wonderfully powerful emotional heart of yours is going to crack a little. It won't last, it won't stay this low, but good gods that lack of engagement and positive reinforcement can be devastating.

The first engagements you get - kudos, likes, reaction emotes on a Discord post - they may be enough to boost you right back up to your baseline or even a little above, until the worry creeps back in again. And I know that it does, clawing and slithering in the back of your beautifully creative mind whispering those horrible lies:

Why isn't this getting the reaction I hoped for yet? Is this work not as good as before? Have people stopped liking me? Is the website/platform hiding my work? Have I upset people somehow in ways I can't even see?

Then Back Up We Go, And What Goes Up...

Hopefully those voices don't get a chance to be too loud for too long before you see more of that engagement. Maybe it's a heartfelt comment from someone, or a share from someone you respect, or just a little surge of interaction in general. You're back on top, darling, your creative heart is soaring, finally your work is being seen in a way that reminds you why you put in all that time in the first place!

And each time, the high wears off again, with a drop, though the extremities of each is likely less and less as time goes on. Unless, of course, we make one little mistake and the gradual confidence build comes crashing back down...

The Perils Of Comparing

Sometimes this might be looking at someone else's work, seeing a similar style or similar topic get far more engagement than your own. It can be really hard not to feel discouraged by this, and falling into that trap of questioning where you're "going wrong" can lead to absolute agony - I urge you to do your best to move away from this as soon as you notice the feeling. I'll cover some proper techniques later though, I promise!

The other trap with comparison can be looking at your own past works, and over-analysing why some pieces never got the same love and appreciation as others. Picking it apart to find what you can do better is not as wise a plan as it seems for one simple reason:

Over half of this is down to pure chance!

It might be the time of day it was posted, or just one or two people seeing it and deciding to share it on that gives a work a massive boost to interaction and engagement. Maybe a work was lucky enough to get shared in a prominent community by one of the members, or even had someone with a huge following give it a boost.

At the end of the day, there seem to be very few ways to predict this. Of course there are some characters, topics, art styles, writing tropes, etc that will have a tendency to get more love from their respective fanbases - that's how popularity works - but there is no guarantee that, for example, two portraits of the same character in similar styles by different artists will have the same levels of engagement and "success". The main person you should be aiming to please with your own work is yourself~ After all, when working on it you will be the one going over it again and again, knowing every detail in and out, if you don't love the subject of those details your less likely to even reach that finish line~

And It All Begins Again

At the end of the cycle there's often one last spike up. Maybe it's a comment or interaction from someone who truly felt the depth of meaning in your work as you hoped it would, or you realise that it has done better overall in the numbers, or most often you get that creative surge of a shiny new idea that calls to you with that familiar siren song, promising the high of satisfaction and sweeping the memory of that Post Publishing Drop under the rug all over again so you won't see it coming when you trip on it.

How Do We Get Off This Ride? Where's The Safety Bar?

Darlings, be honest, you didn't want to stop. You still don't. That's why you're still right here, reading this with me. Your cycle might take a day, a week, a month, or you may go through the whole thing in a matter of hours.

Riding The Waves

The first way to begin coping is to prepare. Know yourself and how you're likely to feel, and plan ahead for it. If you know the drop is coming, you can try to avoid it, or deploy distress tolerance when it feels too much.

On a very simple level, this can be reminding yourself that the lows do not last, and those highs will still be there. You might even be tempted to try to regulate the highs as much as the lows, to bring everything a little closer in to the baseline throughout the cycle.

Distress Tolerance techniques can be important to practice when you're feeling close to your baseline and calm so that they're easier to turn to when you're feeling that low hit. There are lots of things that work for different people, so it might be trial and error - largely you're looking at relaxation techniques, distraction from the source of the distress, and/or community support.

You Can Rely On The Community!

It is ok to ask for help! You can ask people for reassurance, directly ask for feedback, or even just talk over how you feel with other creators and find out how they're handling things. Sometimes just knowing you're not alone and that your feelings are real, valid, and matter can be a real boon - that's why I'm here, spending a couple of hours putting all of this into words as best as I can for you all. I've felt this cycle too many times, but the more I talk about it with other fic writers the more I feel we are connected and that I'm not just losing my marbles over nothing~

We are human, we have emotions - strong ones, remember? - and there's nothing wrong with that at all!

There is nothing wrong with having emotions and experiencing them!

Knowing When To Step Away

If you know you're more likely to have a swift drop from lack of quick feedback, it's a great idea to plan to step away from socials as soon as you're done. Have an activity planned, or do it all write before bed so you can switch off and go to sleep. Turn off those notifications so you aren't fussing over each one of them as they come in and don't go back for a while.

Allow a realistic amount of time to pass for people to see and engage with your work before you worry it is invisible!

The Next Shiny Idea

Conversely, if you're feeling too much of a creative itch, then as soon as you're done sharing move right on to starting the next project. Let the initial surge of energy from completing and sharing something be the driving force to kickstart the next great adventure! That way you're thinking more about the new work, the sparkling allure of a fresh idea, rather than fixating on the success of the last.

Cashing in on that adrenaline rush to make a good head-start can boost you right to that early feedback stage too, then if you're really lucky when you hit the first drop-off you'll have the positive engagement from the last work to boost you back up, so in some ways you're overlaying your graphs to balance them out with each other.

Naturally this only works if you have the time and energy to do so. It's also important to know when to take breaks to avoid burning out.

General Mood Boosting Ideas

These might not work for everyone, but here are some things to try when you're in one of those lows. A lot of this may be trial and error and knowing yourself best, so treat this as a few things that may or may not be effective rather than Lia's Super Snake Oil Cure For Everything (you have to buy that from me separately, it's super expensive but it is delightfully cherry and cinnamon flavoured~)

Check in on your basic needs. Drink, food, meds (if applicable), sleep/nap, caffeine (if you usually have it), shower/bath/hygiene needs (even if just a quick freshen up it's better than nothing), fresh air/outside time (if possible), exercise/physical movement (if you're able to), social needs (can be in person or online, any social interaction/support)

Music can be a powerful mood tool. Sometimes it's cathartic to listen to music that matches your current mood, but other times it is better to listen to music with the mood you want to feel.

Media from the fandom, like the book/film/game/etc that you're making fanworks for - return to the thing that inspired you to create and remember all the things that you loved about it in the first place.

Look at other fanworks but be very cautious! Do this for inspiration, to look at things you do and don't like in other pieces, but do not do this if it will be likely to cause a mood drop for you.

Do something different and change up your routine. Something entirely new or something you haven't done for a while.

Try something small, not connected to a large piece. A few sketches, doodles, make a meme, write a few short lines of dialogue or a brief scene. Share something with far lower stakes for a little boost.

Talk to others in the creative community and have a bit of fun, maybe try some games together, whatever you like!

I'm Not A Creative, How Can I Help?

This also counts for creatives who want to support each other, too! Of course I will put the caveat that I do understand that not everyone is comfortable visibly interacting with spice and that's fine~

Drop a like or kudos if you enjoyed the piece, it takes a second and means the world~

Leaving a comment, even a couple of silly words of "I loved it" is great!

Leaving a longer comment, picking out your favourite parts? That is the kind of boost that lasts weeks darlings it really does.

Sharing the work is also a big boost, whether publicly or privately to friend/fan groups, but especially when sharing art/images please share the link with it not just the image or a screenshot~ let people find and appreciate the artist.

Follow or Subscribe or Turn on notifications if you really want to see more of their work, then you can interact sooner and give that much needed boost~

Try to be patient, especially with longer or higher effort works. Expressing excitement is a boost, but just be careful you're not putting too much pressure on the creator. We do have things going on behind the screen that can delay our plans at times.

Consider dropping an interaction on something else, or check in on how they're doing in general - a little kindness outside of just the works being produced can be a boost too!

The Grand Finale of the Rollercoaster

Thank you for staying with me to the end darlings, I know this was likely a bit of an emotional ride, but please do drop in some comments or reblogs with the other things you experience and how you handle the emotional whirlwind of being a fan creator. Always remember, you are valued for more than just what you can produce, your works are adored but the person behind them is worth so much more and always will be. Look after yourselves, I love you dearly~

[acaplaya-musings]

VoicePlay 2024 Recap

It's time for a recap of everything that VoicePlay has been up to over this year!

If you somehow missed my recap post for Geoff's channel, you can find it HERE. This post will overall have the same format/structure, but of course I have more videos to talk about, so I'll try not to talk too much. I'll link relevant posts of mine just like in my Geoff recap, but I won't link any of the VoicePlay Visuals - just go to my masterpost here!

Okay, first let's give some love to the Minis! VP released 21 Minis to YouTube and other social media platforms this year, (though by the time the year is fully done, it may be 22 or 23, shhh), so I'm not gonna list them all, but some of my favourites were The Last Shanty (absolute earworm!), Pure Imagination (on my sleep playlist), Baby On Board (very cute and also catchy!), and Jump In The Line/Shake Senora (a bop, a banger, and super fun!). And we got cooking challenges too! (And you didn't hear this from me, but you might be getting a new one sooner or later - early January at latest).

Now time for video summaries! (Or my attempt at "summaries" at least, lol)

.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight - released January 19th

So when the video premiere schedule thing for this dropped on YouTube, I gotta say that I honestly wasn't sure what to expect! I guess you could say that I was still "settling into the Rabbit Hole", still working my way down, and so I was almost maybe a little uncertain about this song? Like I knew it wouldn't be bad, but I was like "eh well the original is fairly simple in composition and I don't really know what VoicePlay are gonna do with it", but anyway, Never Doubt VoicePlay Ever, because I really really enjoyed this! It's a warm hug in musical form, while also being a really fun/silly video, and it's the first of VP's 2024 stuff to hit a million views!

Favourite music moment: Getting to hear Layne on lead vocals, followed by a little bit of Geoff on lead, followed by that cool backing vocals "stack" of "tonight- tonight- tonight!" MAN it's so good!

Favourite visual moment: The appearance of Violayne! Totally took me by surprise the first time but it was totally delightful, and Layne looked so happy and pleased when playing his violin! <3

Sleeping In The Cold Below - released February 16th

Just like with Geoff's channel, I was keeping mental notes over this year about what VoicePlay release was my favourite of 2024, and just like with Geoff's solo stuff, it was VP's second release this year that easily jumped to First Place in my mind and stayed there for a good while!

Seriously I was not prepared for how freaking incredible this music video is! Every part of it! I've never heard the original song before, but I absolutely adore this cover (and so did the Warframe devs/creators themselves, apparently, but more on that further down). Also I ended up doing fanart of Geoff from this video (he looked hella good in this video let's be real), which you can find HERE!

Favourite music moment: That ending!!! The way Geoff descends on his "we're all bound down to the deep and we'll all be sleeping in the cold below" line while Eli, Omar, and Cesar take off into the rafters??? (Contrary motion is the proper technical term, apparently). Utter perfection! A shot of adrenaline right to the veins!

Favourite visual moment: The ending shot of them all back in the mask things and motionless is of course quite cool, but I also love the opening shots of each of them removing the face mask armour(?) things one-by-one (like the shot of Layne removing his as he stares right down the camera with those violet contacts while beatboxing? Dang!)

Black Hole Sun - released April 19th

From one kinda futuristic cyberpunk video to another!

I don't really have a ton to say about the video, but that's fine, this is gonna be a long post anyway - might as well embrace any chance to make it a little shorter!

Favourite music moment: Geoff casually dropping in a C#1 subharmonic like it's nothing on "wash away the R A I N N N N N" (also Layne doing snake sounds after the line "sometimes far too long for snakes")

Favourite visual moment: Not really a "moment", but respect to the set design! It's pretty cool how the set looks like they're singing on top of like an apartment building or something! (That short 'brick' wall (not real bricks) behind them was actually made by Eli, with the help of his wife and some other person whose name I don't recognize in the description)

Classical Chaos - released June 28th

This was the first video I got early access to after joining VoicePlay's Patreon! It had released there just a couple or so days before I joined, but for whatever reason it would be more or less a whole four weeks before this video hit YouTube!

Not only did this video make me go and finally watch VoicePlay's "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" video, but then this ended up being unexpectedly amazing? Like my brain was able to look past the initial "weirdness" of the costumes and really enjoy it! And in fact for this video I did a "running commentary" on my first watch, where I paused to type up thoughts as I went, and you can find the post for it HERE! Additionally, I ended up making a comparison post between the "Grundel" characters in Mountain King vs how they appear in Classical Chaos, which you can look at HERE.

Favourite music moment: The return of "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" but with that random syllabic chanting behind it, was honestly pretty epic. Also that kinda "EDM/club remix" of Fur Elise was fire ngl.

Favourite visual moment: All of it? The can-can bit, Geoff's eyeroll during the romance bit, the cool fire effects, that skull thing? Yeah there's a reason why I needed to split my VoicePlay Visuals into 2 posts for this!

The Way You Make Me Feel - released July 19th

To make up for the super long wait for Classical Chaos, this video released only three weeks later, instead of the average four!

Not a lot to say on this one - I feel like I don't know enough music theory to give it the full appreciation it deserves, but I know a lot of more music-knowledgeable people really loved it, and in fact it's become VoicePlay's second video of 2024 to hit a million views!

Favourite music moment: When the song is slowly building and then we get the vocal percussion and the song really kicks into gear for the final section. Love it!

Favourite visual moment: Layne and Cesar looking over at each other during their two-part harmony bit. It's cute!

Total Eclipse Of The Heart - released August 16th

Honestly this is an underrated VoicePlay song imo - released four months ago and hasn't even quite reached 200k views as I'm typing this? (EDIT: it is at 200k now as of the 19th, finally!) Bruh it's a well-known song! Was the algorithm just not on their side for this one?

I think I've gotten a little more "confident" with doing music thoughts/commentary posts, because had this released more recently, or last month or whatever, I probably would have made a post with at least a few notes on cool stuff I liked in the arrangement! And I'm kinda sad that I didn't do it for this one!

Favourite music moment: Does the entire Spanish section count? It's either that or the chorus right afterwards where the vocal percussion kicks in (like in TWYMMF kinda) and when Ashley starts going off with the vocals!

Favourite visual moment: The whole "B-roll footage" part of the video with Cesar and Ashley portraying a couple (each having memory flashbacks?) was a cool addition! Something a little bit novel that definitely worked! (Also I really do love the styling/'costuming' in this one)

Be Prepared - released September 27th

This dropped to Patreon at roughly 11:45PM for me on a Saturday night. I was actually in the middle of watching some YouTube video, and I just happened to check Discord (ADHD be like-), and saw someone had just posted about the Patreon notification and I was like hang on WHAT?

Honestly it took me a red hot minute to force myself to make it past even the first ten seconds of this video, like ohhhh my god. VoicePlay doing "Be Prepared", one of the best Disney Villain songs ever, with Geoff as Scar, having most of the vocals, with hair on point, that awesome jacket, and eyeliner?!!?!! I literally cannot be normal about this video (and yeah Sleeping In The Cold Below was my favourite of 2024, until this came along and overtook it without a second glance).

You can find my thoughts on the song/arrangement HERE, a visual comparison between this video and VP's Oogie Boogie's Song HERE, and a fanart I did of Geoff from this video HERE!

Favourite music moment: The mid-song dialogue part that got turned into a kind of rhythmic "rap" thing was utterly brilliant! Also every single thing that Geoff does in this video, obviously. <3

Favourite visual moment: Don't! Make! Me! Choose! I'm just gonna say I love all the stuff that got replicated from the original scene - the replication of "the lights are not all on upstairs", the thumb/digit across the neck for "take Certain Duties on board", the lighting changing at the same moments as in the original scene and being the same colours as well, it's all perfect!

Thriller - released October 11th

In terms of classic/iconic Halloween songs, VoicePlay have more or less done them all, and so of course they had to get around to doing this song sooner or later! In fact I had the idea myself earlier in the year (like May or June even?), and so did a lot of the other Patrons, as it turned out.

This is only sitting on 370K views as I type this (it deserves way more!) but this was a HIT with reactors! The VP Patreon Discord server has a thread for sharing reaction video links and I swear this video got so many people doing reactions for it! I won't say too much about my own thoughts, because you can read my thoughts/commentary on the song cover itself HERE, and you can go find my 2-part Voiceplay Visuals (again!) for this video via my Masterpost link at the top of this post! Oh and also I shared this picture of Geoff in the video as its own post and people really seemed to like it, so I might as well put that link here as well.

Favourite music moment: I mean like the arrangement is freaking amazing and everyone brought their A-game with the vocals, but like c'mon, I had one main hope for this cover, and they delivered! Geoff doing Vincent Price's spooky monologue is everything I wished for and more, and I love it.

Favourite visual moment: Again, this is a case where it's really hard to choose, but I think I'm just gonna have to hand the whole dang award to Geoff. The shot of him rising up (almost vampire-like) after the first transformation part, the shoulder movements during the monologue, the way he never blinks once after getting zombified, like he absolutely crushed it! Came, ate, left no crumbs!

Stand By Me - released November 15th

This one was filmed around the same time as Be Prepared was (like I think the following day or the day after that?), and honestly given the two super amazing full-production music videos we got for the previous two months, VoicePlay more than deserved to have their next video be a bit more "simple" and relaxed! Plus it's a gorgeous arrangement, with gorgeous vocals, and it deserves more views! (Seriously the portrait video format didn't seem to affect The Lion Sleeps Tonight in terms of getting noticed!) You can find my thoughts/commentary post about it HERE!

Favourite music moment: I mean Layne's lead vocal line was of course absolutely lovely (and followed by Geoff getting lead vocals no less!) but I did also enjoy Mykal's 'ad-libs' of "you don't have to do it alone, you don't have to stand up on your own!"

Favourite visual moment: Cesar smiling down at Mykal and Eli and then smiling up at Geoff and Layne during his main lead part early in the song <3

Zat You Santa Claus? - released December 6th

This is a song that I would've been totally unfamiliar with had I not gone and listened to all of VoicePlay's 2012 Peppermint Winter album like a week or two before this dropped to Patreon! And even then I wasn't really sure what to expect from this, because obviously the lineup is a little different here to what it was 12 years ago, and the arrangement of this is different to the album version as well! But I really loved this, it's so jazzy, and in case you missed my thoughts/commentary post about it, then you can find it HERE.

I also ended up making a post comparing the lyrics of VoicePlay's version to the lyrics of the original, which you can find HERE, and although I didn't make a proper Voiceplay Visuals for this one, I still ended up doing a mini "screenshot compilation", which you can find HERE.

Favourite music moment: Layne's lead vocal part was obviously very cool, but so was J's scatting, and the harmonies were great - it's just a fun awesome arrangement!

Favourite visual moment: The build-up on "he's coming to get yaaa...." with the quick switches of everyone leaning in "spookily" towards whoever was sitting in the middle was great, as well as J handing off the gift to Cesar (who accepted it delightedly and then used it like a shaker instrument), while Geoff and Eli were definitely looking uncertain/sus about it.

Party Of Your Lifetime - released December 13th

Man I did not see this one coming, but I certainly ain't complaining about it!

Yeah so the Warframe creators liked VoicePlay's cover of Sleeping In The Cold Below so much that they asked to do an official collaboration thing with the group, and the result is this freaking awesome video and freaking awesome song cover! Seriously between the makeup and costuming, and the dancing, and the whole 90s boy band energy (but with a sci fi twist!) it's honestly just a great time, as I knew it would be! (And if you haven't seen my thoughts on the vocals/music/song arrangement, go HERE!)

Favourite music moment: I mean imo it has to be the "join us embrace us, don't ever erase us" breakdown section, like the way it slowly builds, just starting with Geoff and then having Cesar come in, and then Eli and Layne and stuff, like it's just very cool (but I also enjoy the key change for the final chorus!)

Favourite visual moment: The whole video is great, and the dancing and jumping around looked very fun, but honestly I think I'm gonna have to also hand this one to the "join us embrace us..." section. Like maybe I'm suffering from a bit of recency bias and I might have a different answer if you were to ask me in like a month, but everything about that part was just *chefs kiss*

.

So yeah, there's my VoicePlay recap for 2024!

I know this post is already quite long, but if you'll just allow me to talk a little more, I just want to say thank you. When I started this blog in late January, I wasn't sure if there were any VoicePlay fans much active on Tumblr at all (or at least anymore). I got used to it - this blog was made for my own entertainment, not for trying to become popular or anything - but y'all came, and y'all found me! (Or maybe I found you!)

I was looking at one of my older mini comparison posts I did, between High And Dry and Wicked Game, and it currently has zero notes on it (as of me typing this). But if I were to post it now? I know it'd at least get a few likes, and maybe even a comment, and/or a reblog or two! Heck, I can post a 'random' picture of Geoff now and have it get 18 likes! And I take not a single one for granted!

I remember and recognize many of your usernames, and even if I have never talked to you or interacted with you or followed you, I still see you! If you have ever liked or reblogged or commented on any of my posts, I appreciate you so much! (But also to my beloved mutuals: I love you a whole lot, you know who you are <3). Thank you for making my fan creator experience extra fun and enjoyable, and see you all in 2025!

(But also see some of you tomorrow for more fic posting!)

[bobellafofella]

Oh hiye! I just wanted to say-

I just wanted to say the widojest fandom owes you our lives. We've suffered a lot of hits in the past four years. We've lost artists, we've lost art, some people needed to go and they packed up their bags with them and there's nothing we can do about it.

But you- you are breathing new life, new content. We weren't crazy. There was love and there still is. There always will be.

Thank you for putting more love out into the world.

🧡💙

this is so freaking sweet anon, thank you 😭 I’ve been shipping widojest since like 2019 and was a biiiiiiiig fic poster during c2 but i didn’t have an art blog back then. also, yeah critrole fandom used to be toxic as shit if you said the wrong thing (like “i think these two characters have chemistry” or “i didn’t really like that one scene seconds from the latest episode”)(you know, normal fan thoughts and criticisms) to the wrong person, and I’m forever pissed at the people who felt entitled to harass others online who were just having fun. hla-rosa I’ll never forget you. people who made hla-rosa delete all of their beautiful art and compilations from the internet I’ll never forgive you.

anyways, the wj community was such a lovely online space for me to find my writing voice, and I’m glad it’s still such a lovely online space to post silly sappy fanart! I’ll be here, thinking about them, forever.

[samejimachich]

My impression of GLAZE and Nightshade

It may be a bit long post I guess.

I tried to use GLAZE and Nightshade, so I'll show you how the images are changed.

Nightshade

Here is the latest UI.

Render Quality is all slowest, because they didn't look different from Faster to Slowest.

Intensity: Low

Intensity: Default

Intensity: High

GLAZE

Here is the latest UI.

By the way, if you want to use both GLAZE and Nightshade, you must use Nightshade first.

So at first I'll show you the images only use GLAZE.

I only show Intensity: Default ver./Intensity: High ver.

Render Quality are both Slowest.

Because the lowest intensity in Glaze is Default, and I guess Default is the recommendable setting from official.

Render Quality: Faster

Render Quality: Medium

Render Quality: Slower

Render Quality: Slowest

Next, Glazed after Nightshaded ver. Intensity: High Render Quality: Slowest

(Green texts are Nightshade settings.)

So, if you want to use both, it depends which look you like tho, but I recommend both settings are Intensity: Default/Render Quality: Slowest.

But IF you want to use both and furthermore using the effect as watermark, I recommend both sittings are Intensity: High/Render Quality: Slowest.

The following sentences are just my opinion and how I post my art from now on. so you don't have to read more if you don't care about what my art will do.

So, from today onwards, I'll post my art as Intensity: High/Render Quality: Slowest nightshaded/Glazed ver.

Because, once, my fanart ha been unauthorized reproduction on Youtube, and long ago, my arts have also listed in the "Maybe I'll review it one day on my YT channel" box on DA. Of course no contact to me. I didn't feel anger but disgusting, and the alert to the stealers was so tesious. Seriously, I think my art never be stolen from "Al artists" but I no approval that someday Al steal Mike Mignola-ish art and someone praize for them like "Wow, it's really Mike Mignola!!". I believe Al and Al artists never understand the skill of the lighting, at least in a few year. But IF someone try to, I don't know how angry I'll get.

Sorry to let me change the subject slightly, I don't think Al Tim Burton-ish arts are not even Tim Burton-"ish" arts. (It's JUST my opinion tho, I love Burton's sketch.) They just picked up the "Burton-ish features" like spiral, stripe, twig-ish neck, morbid looks, brah-brah-brah. But I was shocked many people saw them and praized.

So, this is the one of the opinion of mine.

Second, I think the artists need more protect our art from network. Once, (I only know Japanese artists tho) social medias were the gratest places for commercial of art, even for non-famous artists. We wanted to show their art high-def and we tried many times how we can post our art without dull. But we had to notice, we were too open. Our posts were like setting up the unattended store on the side of the road in a slum area. Inside the store, there was no security buzzer but just free mercandise. Finished product, not a sample. And a flyer on the side saying "If you like my art, please give me some tips or a job."

Once again, I believe my art will never be stolen at least from Al. This is my worthless action, but some artists need I think.

If you want to see my proper art works, you need to buy my book or join member ship on ko-fi. Thank you for reading this long sentences.

[unabashedcroissanttreefan]

Okay Hello, no one knows me, I have 0 follower, I never post and no will read this but I HAD to share this Miguel O'hara/ Y/N thought, which can probably be applied to a lot of characters

Imagine : The sun is setting during a chill day in summer. In a cemetery, Miguel is sat before his sweet daughter's grave. How long has he been there ? Don't know, but when he arrived the sun was high in the blue sky. He talks to the rectangle marble stone in front of him, the picture of Gabriella never ceasing to smile.

The gravel crunches under the feet of someone, but Miguel doesn't seem to mind nor to even notice, focused on all the things he wants to tell his lovely Gabi.

The person stops in front of a grave, probably the one of someone they loved and cared for. A family member ? A friend ? Only them know. The scent of the flower bouquet they hold fill the air around. They stare at the name(s) written in golden engraved letters with a soft grin. A sigh passes through their lips as they slowly start to bend to place the colorful bouquet of hand-picked flowers, when their eyes drift to the broad figure of a man crouched on before another polished stone.

The person scan him, no ounce of judgment in their mind; He happily talks and chuckles to the photo despite the obvious remorse rolling down his cheeks.

A discreet grin is now drawn on their lips, endeared by the sight. They approach him, carefully stepping forward not to startle him, but he doesn't seem to have noticed them.

Miguel eagerly tells Gabriella about the latest news that happened in his Spider life ; how the cafeterias vending machine was completely destroyed after everyone fought for the last piece of some random candy he always found too sweet and doesn't understand the hype for, how he finally found one of Lyla's jokes funny, how he forgot what Jess looked like without her round belly and how healthy her baby is..

He is involved in each of his words.

A set of legs enter his vision. He immediately shoots his gaze up, ready to pick a fight with whoever interrupted him and Gabi in their one-sided conversation.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.." The stranger embarrassly states. While he raises an eyebrow, still perplexed, they kneel down. Their face always showed a soft expression clearly displaying their lack of wrong intentions. Under his curious eyes, the person starts to choose some flowers in the lot, seriously thinking about the one that suited the best the framed, smiling girl. Happy of their second little bouquet, they proudly grin, and place the gathering of flowers on the grave, in front of the picture.

"I hope she isn't allergic to pollen" They say, offering a warm smile to the man, who, despite being dumbfounded by their action, seems to appreciate it.

Miguel chuckles.

"She was, but she loved flowers too much to care about it. I always had to carry allergy medication because of that"

They both chuckle. He was glad to share her memory with someone

"I can't blame her ! I always loved to go on walks just to pick every kind of flowers I came across to"

"Believe me, she did the same. The appartement was always full of dead flowers because she was too sad to throw them away"

Both of them laugh, and, the now 'not really a stranger anymore' settles on their rear and crosses their legs, eager to know more.

Jeez HAAAAAA

(Fanart not mine, I don't have the name of the artist, sadly.. I randomly picked it from my gallery, I'm really deeply sorry)

Also, I'm not a native English speaker, and since this is a drabble, I didn't take the time to look for translations or correct orthography, so don't hesitate to tell me if I made a mistake, that's how Iearn haha

[torto-isemusings]

Ah, Common Sense Media: One Million Moms on a budget.

Home of one of the worst, most ignorant reviews of our beloved Incredibox I've ever seen (below)

One star from an Adult. A tough crowd these ones.

Join me, dear Reader, as I Torto breakdown the points of this review one. By. One.

For your entertainment, of course ;)

1) "Nobody will like this lackluster 'game'"

*hysterical, borderline-demonic hyena laugh*

But seriously, given the amount of fanart, mods, YouTube videos, and blogs dedicated to this game it seems like the word "nobody" implies whole swaths of people in the definition. *Sparticus voice* I AM NOBODY!

2) "The same man is copy-pasted at least 6 times"

Most people who complain about this haven't done the bare minimum of research to discover that, yes, they are all one man. That is, of course, Paul "Incredible Polo" Malburet, who voiced them all. It's meant to showcase what *just one man* can do with his (aptly named) incredible voice. Love you, Polo❤️

3) "There's really nothing to do but click on the men to produce lackluster sounds"

Say that to his adorable face, I dare you!

Risk being the target of Gallic Rage!

4) "Sure, there are different costumes but they do nothing to enhance the game"

OP must be really fun at Halloween parties /s. Repeat after me: "Costumes enhance *everything*!" Also, now that you've taken a shot at Paul, you can't resist taking a shot at Romain as well, how thoughtful. Love you too, Bily❤️

5) "There are no puzzles [or] prize wheels"

Okay, I'll give them this one. Even though the bonuses are kind of like puzzles, no puzzle just gives you the answer by hovering over the icon. However, I think this is one of the things that makes Incredibox so special: It's not about puzzles. It isn't one of those instant gratification, constant rush of dopamine games(which, imo, are on par with the "brainrot" section of YouTube). Just like writing your own music, you have to stew on it for a while, see what works, and most of all enjoy it! Experimentation can be fun!

6) "There's no way to customize the look-alike men -they're all in boring black and white"

First, see my rebuttal to point #2. Second, this just tells me you didn't play past Little Miss(which is all but confirmed later). LM is only the second version. Each version gets better than the last as the guys hone their craft. Even your oh-so-despised costumes get better! In Jeevan alone you have practically all the colors of the goddamn rainbow! At the end of the day, even though Incredibox is more about the music than anything else, the costumes are a neat bonus that keep things visually interesting. Long story short, if you want customization The Sims is right there.

7) "The game is so boring I quit after 1 minute"

While I'm pretty sure 1 minute is an exaggeration, this does pretty much confirm OP didn't play past Little Miss. Geez, even a goldfish would know you need to pay attention for more a minute to accurately assess the quality of a game.

8)"It takes about 25 minutes to load the game"

This one's just a flat out lie.

9) "The developer isn't even updating the game anymore...terribly outdated...stuck in 2019"

Patience, Grasshopper. The latest bonus for Wekiddy was released only 9-10 months ago. That isn't forever. I'm sure all three guys are working their culs off to get the third one out in a timely manner. Especially Allan, who I haven't mentioned yet. Love you as well, Al❤️

Also define "stuck in 2019"? What does a game have to do in order to be worthy of the 2020s, include a Covid-themed version?

10) "Forget about Incredibox and just get My Singing Monsters instead"

...you're lucky TV Tropes lists us as Friendly Fandoms, or I would get mad at that. I however won't because I'm mad enough.

And there you have it, Reader, my full thoughts on this godawful review. Tell me your thoughts in the tags, and if there was anything I missed💜

[hay-bails]

Omg omg I was NOT prepared for the crushing wave of nostalgia that seeing ashes art in the year 2024 triggered just now - Look. I'm not really an artist anymore. But finding you on scratch during middle school fundamentally impacted a significant portion of my formative years ok?? I'd sell a kidney just to watch your MAP parts again. That project was such a huge inspiration to me. YOU were such a huge inspiration to me! And to a lot of other people!! And Ashes pushed me to draw and write and improve and I'm always gonna be so grateful for that. I was very tempted to roll up my sleeves and take a stab at making some (probably crummy) fanart after seeing your latest post but ultimately I think that's just gonna be embarrassing for the both of us. But I had to at least say something. So thank you for remembering Ashes! It means a lot to us fans.

(also shoutout to bonafide bonaparteeeeeeee my second love)

Hi! I feel like I sound like a broken record when I say this, but these sort of messages mean the world to me, truly! And I simply cannot stress that enough. Working on Ashes was such a huge part of my late middle school/early high school years, a tough time for me that was made infinitely better by being part of that little community. So really, I should be thanking YOU and everybody else who watched it, helped make it, cheered it on, or even just thought about it—both for being part of the Ashes project back then and helping keep the memory of something that was so special to me alive now. :')

If I may—I hope that if drawing, writing, and creating things was something you loved, that you pick it back up again one day. Stepping away from art for three years gave me so many new opportunities and let me grow a lot, but it also shut down a big part of my soul. There were a lot of reasons (fear of disappointing people, worry about too much time online, etc.) but a big one was shame and embarrassment. Making something out of love and then putting it out there to be judged, misunderstood, looked down upon—that hurts! But when you put yourself out there and make things you're absolutely, positively, obsessed with, that you cannot imagine the world being without, I promise you will find other people who feel the same way. I had that with Ashes, and although I let those sort of worries get to me and end that first experience, I'm lucky to have found that again. Trying to learn to draw again in 2020 was SO humiliating. It felt SO DIFFICULT no matter what I was trying to do, and I was terrified for the longest time of showing other people my work, something I had never felt before. But luckily, I had a group of friends who invited me to play d&d with them (two groups, actually lol), and through that I found both inspiration and a safe place to grow comfortable with that again. Being on tumblr helped, too. It felt like my earliest days on Scratch, just posting stuff every day and not really expecting it to be seen, just testing the limits of my own skills.

So I guess my point is: if creating something, whether that's fan art or original work or anything else, crosses your mind, go do it! Everything that's embarrassing in one light can be the coolest thing in another. We all have to start as our own first fans, but please know that I will be cheering you on too!

[fair-city-reporter]

I won't be giving this an official caption/title because I literally don't know what to call it, but uh- I'm a participant for Whumptober this year! For anyone who doesn't have the slightest clue what I'm talking about, whump is defined as a genre within fandoms involved in physically and mentally "whumping" (or rather angst'ing) a character. Whumptober's meant to be this October event where creators (artists, writers, etc) create whump for characters - both fandom and original.

I'm really wanting to be a completionist this year, meaning I'll be able to finish and post all 31 prompts but here's the thing: I have finally come up with an idea for what I'm doing in regard to the second prompt. I'm writing here since I decided it would be for Wordgirl; I was originally going to seek help on how to make it whumpy before I remembered I'm allowed to combine themes and prompts however I like. After giving it another glance-around, I came up with a neat little trick on how to make it work!

I'll cover the main idea I had for the incoming whump prompt, but I will not be talking about the full scope of the plot - just to make things a little more interesting! Essentially, it's a role reversal ft. ToBecky which is quite self explanatory; years have passed since Tobey's debut as Fair City's hero and has been at odd ends with Becky's villainous persona but following one of their latest encounters - something brings them closer than ever before... and it's about to get dangerous.

Read below the cut for general information about the role reversal au!

The role reversal originally began as a joke between one of my mutuals; after having seen fanart - I decided why not make my own and thus began this silly project of hero Tobey and villain Becky. Wordgirl obviously doesn't exist in the context of this universe as I wanted her villain name to be different.

How I envisioned it working out;

Instead of Becky being taken in by the Botsford's, she's found by Steven Boxleitner, before he was ever fused with Squeaky, and he decides to adopt her - not wanting to leave Becky and her 'pet' monkey alone in the forest. Things are fine for a while, but she doesn't become Wordgirl; wanting to follow in her adoptive parent's footsteps, she spends a lot of time in his lab and helps with his projects where need be among other small things. Unfortunately, at some point - Steven has his accident and he becomes Dr. Two Brains, beginning his spiraling descend into villainy.

As for Becky, she originally starts as being this sort of not-quite henchmen to Dr. Two Brains; assisting in some of the heists, as well as helping with plans and such. All things normal, but what's a bored alien to do? Well, she decides to create her own villainous persona (only something goes wrong, but we'll get to that later-). Sometimes she'll work alongside Dr. Two Brains, and other times she focuses on her own mischief. Becky has never once harmed a civilian but she's kind of a menace and at one point meets Tobey. (Granted, they also go to the same schools, but still-)

I also feel like Tobey's still the one crushing on Becky/[REDACTED] but Becky is currently treating it all as if it's all a fun, little game of cat and mouse. Tobey also does not have powers per se and is more like a mini Tony Stark, is currently my vision. I thought it would be fitting that way.

If anyone's curious, I'll be covering more later while avoiding spoilers! I need to turn on asks, I think but grrr - for now, I'll leave at this!

[likesdoodling]

It has been a while since I started digital art,

Quite a while.

So here is a 'progress over the last two years' since I gained access to a drawing tablet.

:D

This is my first ever digitally illustrated piece- compared to my latest one-

So, a little bit different.

I do think my art took quite a jump around June 2022, when I took a break from my Steve comic strip, (for obvious reasons- it was about Technoblade's polar bear so...) and decided to try practicing gesture drawing to see if it helped my general anatomy knowledge. This is before,

And this next one is after.

The most obvious change here is that I switched to using thinner lines. There is a gap of about two months between these.

This was when I realised that you could improve art by practicing it (mind-blowing I know), and then started to do just that. Some other notable jumps forward would be when I discovered the airbrush-

Well, discovered a new method of shading with it anyway.

Then after that I had a few pictures that I actually still like, despite them being pretty old at this point, the one below is actually from September of 2022-

I mean, the hands are a bit iffy, but the rest looks alright. This was when I was going through a bit of a melanie martinez phase-

This next one was from January of 2023, I'd only just gotten into bungou stray dogs via some random memes on pinterest about this weird brown haired guy who had lots of bandages and who had this running gag with wanting to die- I actually looked him up at one point, but that didn't really explain much. The main one that I remember was 'life is short, so make it shorter, shorter than chuuya~'

Which at the time was just kind of confusing,

Then I watched the show and it made perfect sense.

I'd discovered ascendance of a bookworm in like, 2021, but I hadn't really been doing fanart of it since I was mainly doing dsmp related stuff and I kind of assumed nobody would know what on earth I was referencing. Turns out tumblr has a lot more bookworm fans than I orignally anticipated. Instagram still has no clue. I think maybe one person out of my followers on instagram knows what I'm on about-

Then we've got these two which I am still proud of btw-

The first one is from a dystopian/time travel fanfic called viridian.

The second one was after I learned about rim lighting. It was inspired by a song actually, 'crash' by noevaii. (and yes I found that song from a sad-ist animatic, it was cool) The character isn't anyone in particular. They're both from February 2023.

Then there's probably my most liked picture on instagram, (not tumblr, since tumblr knows about bsd and bookworm, but y'know. This was even sadder than I originally intended since the last half of my comic strip was finished AFTER everything happened)

Then the final conclusion of my Steve comic strip in May of 2023.

I don't think my art really changed much in between those, but eh.

Then I switched to doing a bunch of ascendance of a bookworm stuff to see what would happen and turns out there are way more fellow fans out there than I anticipated-

Then I guess my next breakthrough in tumblr popularity, (even if it might not have been a breakthrough in art skills necessarily) was when things went DOWN in the bsd fandom with chapter 109 and I did probably one of my most liked tumblr posts I have ever done-

If you want to see the rest of that, feel free to scroll down on my tumblr page, the original's like eight pages long-

This was before anyone knew what was going to happen btw.

I still think it's hilarious that I put in chuuya having contacts. My reasoning being, they're on a film set,

It was a pretty interesting exercise in shading in monochrome.

Then I started a 30 day art challenge in October that I didn't get past day six of, but it was still pretty fun. This is the best one of those-

After that I spent most of my time studying for the jlpt n5, so I didn't really do that much art related stuff,

This is one of the two non-commission related pictures that I finished over the two months after I kind of gave up on the art challenge. This one's from November,

Then I finally finished an art commission I'd been working on for the three months prior, as well as studying. Here is an example of the type of pictures I was doing for that,

Then I was occupied with christmas and birthday presents for my siblings, both my little sisters are into ascendance of a bookworm- (completely my fault I am proud to say) so I was able to do stuff related to that, here's a couple of snippets, but you guys don't get the colour version hehe

And one of them has also read the entire fma manga just like I have so-

Anyway, it's been quite a progression since I resolved to master digital art in 2021.

I reckon I've come a fair way since then. I mean. My art skills in general are way better than they used to be. The last two or three years have been pretty interesting.

Also-

Just had to include this one, I'm gonna do a more detailed version but still-

I think it's funny so I'm posting it here. Even if it's not really related to art progression-

[trans-elrond]

Nik! Did you watch Rebel Moon? How was it?

Yes hello this is my 4 star review of rebel moon on letterboxd.

But first: a professional, somewhat critical review of rebel moon that engages with the film well, especially regarding anti-colonial themes, and isn't just knee-jerk regurgitated Snyder haterism:

And now more of my thoughts: [edit: Oh No, He Went And Talked For 3 Hours About It, Thanks For Coming To My TedTalk:)

No one has a better knack at putting together a cast list SO ATTRACTIVE TO THE BISEXUALS. read it and weep, boys. (Jena Malone is there too but really just for 1 set piece)

...Jena Malone's one (1) scene set piece features her as an alien spider woman with legitimate grievances against the Empire who now wants to kill kids because all her kids were killed. Like, so valid, girl. Also, did I say Jena Malone as an alien spider-woman? And this is just one scene.

Look, if that pitch doesn't hook you, this film may not be for you, and that's okay, but by GOD my people are the people who hear "Jena Malone alien spider woman" and perk up. I love you, freaks.

The cinematography is ace and always will be under Snyder's direction. music by Tom Holkenborg SLAPS. Costuming and design overall is super super strong. (People on this hellsite are always complaining about inadequate, boring as hell sci-fi design and you get RM and you don't appreciate it for what it is. WAKE UP.)

Costume showcase! Second from the right in this photo showing off those sweet sweet sci-fi costume designs is my beloved non-binary they/them revolutionary Milius. CANONICALLY non-binary, let me add. Imagine SW doing that lmaoooooooooooo D*ve Filoni would fuckin keel over and die

Kora! Our tragic female protagonist of color who's over 40, with a dark edgy sexy background. [KIDNAPPED AS A CHILD!! DEAD FAMILY!!! DEAD LOVER!!!!!!! SHE FAILED TO PROTECT HER WARD FROM ASSASSINATION!!!!! SHE IS THE MOST WANTED WOMAN IN THE UNIVERSE!!]

Bitches on tumblr LOVE taking failmen with sad backstories from media and blorbifying them, but the second it's a woman? please. If this was a man people would be writing the filthiest x reader smut you've seen since Mandalorian S1 came out. If this was a man you'd already have seen 20,000 fan drawings of her with her muscles and tits OUT. God where's my Kora fanart.

I personally have no problems with the plot of this movie (part 1 of 2) being "we must collect warriors to fight the evil empire." That's kinda fantasy story 101 and I still love new, varied interpretations of that plot.

If there's not much interconnecting plot because Kora's just gathering fighters, it's kinda like... that's the point, babes, they'll actually get to it in part 2. We're just at the "forming the team" stage. I revel in that part of a fantasy film and I always want it to be longer, so this film is like catnip to me.

Uh, yeah, this is getting long. More under the cut.

Entertainment professional nitpick time! I've seen someone say RM would be better as a TV show to introduce a new character each episode. And I truly don't think that fixes any of the problems this person has with the film, while introducing way more problems. (Who the fuck would go in on an original concept TV show where each episode introduces a new hero. You could not sell that pitch to a studio, ever, and viewers would instantly check out if they didn't like the introduced character of the week, and the same complaints would be made: it’s just a new character intro blah blah blah. This wouldn’t fix anything! It would very much make it worse!)

Me, like every day, through gritted teeth: that's... not... how... tv... works...

Like be realistic for a hot second with me. Television is not "long movie"—it is a different medium with different rules. Yes, the past decade has blurred many lines between TV and film, but they're still different mediums, and when people blur them ("it's a 10-hour movie!") the results often suck ass, because you either lack episodic structure or you lack feature structure. Snyder is a feature filmmaker who has never worked in TV. Whenever features people jump into TV, it's a whole other learning curve! They're usually terrible at it! You want Snyder to have to learn a new medium? You want him to learn 5/6-act TV structure from scratch? You want him to (horrified gasp) lead a writers room? Those are not his strengths, baby. Let him play in his space opera sandbox.

And I'm not done! You want the casting team to have to deal with the headache of getting feature film actors to star in a TV show? (Pay cuts! Longer commitments! TV production timelines!) You want to do that to me, personally, and fuck up the TV landscape some more by going, "Oh, we can basically just make a Longer Feature Film in TV"? Fuck off with that. TV has different production realities and different basic story structures. A [long] film [with two parts] is still a film, in structure and production practicalities.

Truly, Tumblr media studies brains (derogatory) at it again.

To each their own, but again, I think RM's structure is fun because it gives me more of the goodies (badass, varied character intros) for the price of one (2-hour film.) Like... that's the good stuff, that's often the most exhilarating part of a film for me. And contrary to popular belief, it's not intro to intro without rising tension or stakes. It builds tension as it goes because new facets of resistance against the Motherworld are explored in each character's intro scene. New ways they fight back, new worlds on which they fight back. And a ticking time bomb of the King's Gaze (king's gays lol) catching up.

Here, have a trailer bc Tumblr's mad at me for too much text in one block.

...I like the RM characters. I want to spend time with them and see what other zany shenanigans Snyder will have them do. (Alien bar fights! Taming a space gryphon! Lightsaber battle!) I like the side-quest-y, exploratory, space opera sandbox playground nature. It's fun, and like, again, if you don't perk up at the concept of collecting cool characters like action figures, this film may just not be for you.

To me it's a polycule. Like, the most messed up polycule in the whole galaxy, but it's a polycule.

Speaking of: THE CHARACTERS ROCK. Yeah, we're missing some significant character development because Netflix truncated Snyder's 4-hr, R-rated film into a 2-hr PG-13 version (likely to be able to release the 4-hr cut later, drum up new press, and get more eyeballs on the movie in total in a few months.) That's... not really Snyder's fault [even though he claims he's in on the plan... some part of me thinks it was Netflix's idea and not his. Stinks of studio meddling.] And it's not indicative of the quality of the actual film, which I currently see as more of an abridged version of the R-rated film that's gonna come out and fill up some of these story holes.

If people are judging the film for not being the 4-hour version, and then decide not to see the 4-hour version, that's their call, but it's kinda shitty to act like the 2-hr version is all there is. Like it probably wasn't Snyder's call to do a 2-hr cut! He's said that the 4-hr one is a whole different movie. I betcha the common criticisms (not enough character development, just jumps from character intro to character intro without interconnection, lack of structure) will be helped, if not outright solved, by the longer cut.

I think people are also happy to take a Part 1 of a movie if it's, say, Dune, and the source material has another part, so Part 1 is allowed to be fucking boring, whereas people don't give that kind of allowance to original sci-fi movies, WHICH IS A REASON WE DON'T GET ORIGINAL SCI-FI. If you're painting with as huge and cosmic a palette as space opera Rebel Moon, the 4-8 hours total across the 2 four-hour parts is kinda bare minimum for an epic. So... patience is a virtue? Let part 1 have elements of IT'S KIND OF A PROLOGUE?

What's that saying? If you want the rewards of space opera worldbuilding with an ensemble cast, you must submit to the mortifying ordeal of 2 hours of setup. Geez. Enjoy the wacky exposition or get out of the space opera genre.

Yeah, that leads me to the point of people who don't enjoy space opera are getting mad at RM for fulfilling the promises of the genre. You might truly be happier elsewhere. The whole thing is over-the-top, huge-scale MELODRAMA and I thrive on melodrama. If it's too cheesy for you, don't come to space operas!!!!!!!

On that note, people have said RM is too tropey and too Star Wars-y. But like I said. If you don't love the tropes get out of the genre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you aren't here for bloodier/hornier Star Wars get out of RM!!!!

Another big idea I would be remiss to skip over. RM is an explicitly, deliberately anti-colonial, anti-imperial text—far, far more so than any other mainstream sci-fi currently being released. Well-intentioned liberals love to tout Star Trek/Star Wars as progressive media but they really hedge and defang all their political commentary, especially in their 21st century franchise form—think the SW sequels/shows straight up woobifying K*lo Ren in realtime and the Trek shows that (while fun!) are really often just nostalgia bait.

RM is pretty fucking radical. Its theme basically is Kill Nazis—or in expanded form, something along the lines of "The empire will eat up everything of value in the universe unless it is met with unified armed resistance built on solidarity."

And just look at RM's casting. We're not colorblind here; we're very color-conscious. (That's a rant for another day, but I've really started to despise colorblind casting for its extremely well-intentioned-liberal "we're all the same" mentality. It just winds up erasing.) Anyway: RM features the explicitly American-English-Afrikaans empire vs. the Algerian Amazigh protagonist, Black freedom fighters, Japanese revolutionary... and like. Snyder's always gonna be into Vikings so obviously we have Space Vikings too, whatever. Look at me, I can criticize Snyder too! The Poor Sad Space Vikings are not the strongest part of the film!

...Anyway of course the empire vs. revolution is absolutely kind of Star Wars-y since RM is highkey Snyder's Star Wars, but it goes so much further than SW dreamed (or, perhaps, nightmared). SW's rebels/resistance continually get defanged because they're kind of foundationally space magic/singular hero's quest deals, and modern SW with the exception of Rogue One/Andor is just politically, socially stupid. In contrast, RM is about forming a coalition, without something like the Force to help you out. I could write an essay on the ways RM starts in the same place Star Wars starts but takes its politics so much more seriously, so much further.

While I'd argue "good politics" and "artistic quality" rarely correlate, RM is explicitly and doggedly a text about the colonial empire that exploits, enslaves, abuses, and seeks to utterly control marginalized people groups in its quest for domination—and god, I would LOVE to see a resurgence in very fanged, very angry political sci-fi.

One more aside. Snyder has been rightfully criticized for his earlier works basking in fascist-adjacent, hypermasculine aesthetics; 300 is notably super duper racist in how it depicts savage/monstrous Persians vs. Beautifully Good White Spartans Defending Their Culture. (more on "300 Bad" stored up in my brain if anyone wants THAT rant.) To Snyder's credit, none of his films since 300 have really done that—parts of Batman v Superman and his cut of Justice League purposefully poke fun at it. The hypermasculinity is kinda still there, but it's subsumed in the service of melodrama and mythic-flavored cinema, and it's kinda a staple of the action genre anyway, and if you're gonna criticize Snyder without criticizing EVERY ACTION MOVIE EVER, that's just more regurgitated Snyder haterism.

No one is doing mythic action like Snyder these days. No one has the balls and the command of melodrama & operatic visuals. And it comes clearly from Snyder's background in art & art history because all his shots are jam-packed with symbolism and meaning and allusion. So criticize the film for its weaknesses if you like but geez, if I see another post railing about the lack of CRAFT in RM, I will start biting. ALMOST NO BLOCKBUSTER HAS THIS LEVEL OF CRAFT. It's okay that you don't understand visual storytelling, babygirl, but please don't accuse Snyder of lacking craft.

Sorry, you've triggered Cinema Defense Mechanisms in me, I'm gonna have to sit down for a while after this.

I have more takes. Takes hot enough to fuel the King's Gaze (king's gays lol.) But I'll end with a funny observation: I transed my gender (cheers, shouts, hoorays) just about the time I was getting ready to watch Rebel Moon, and in one shocking, epiphanic moment I turned to my partner and went "Of COURSE I'm a man. I like Zack Snyder." So........... do with that what you will.